


under the sea

by bongjoong



Series: we fishy fishy like [1]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Babie Jongho, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, baby SHARK jongho try me, based on fanart, kind of, lapslock, theyre all sea creature-people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24860098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bongjoong/pseuds/bongjoong
Summary: hongjoong travels the sea to meet his beloved.
Relationships: Jung Wooyoung/Kang Yeosang/Choi San, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa, Song Mingi/Jeong Yunho
Series: we fishy fishy like [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1847851
Kudos: 80





	under the sea

**Author's Note:**

> hi! so haha long time no post...i saw fanart from cchaiart on twitter a long time ago and thats where i drew most of the inspiration for the ending from: https://twitter.com/cchaiart/status/1264320679584739329?s=21
> 
> hope you guys enjoy and stay safe!

hongjoong hummed as he gathered his collected items, swiping them carelessly into his small handmade bag. he swam over to a mirror; the steel hull of a sunken ship, as his mother had told him when he was a child. he swept a hand through his white hair to tousle it naturally.

“hongjoong,” he heard his father call, “are you going out again?”

“just to see someone,” hongjoong hummed. he double checked his bag and made a turn to swim out, instead swimming right into his father’s broad chest.

“for how long?” his father asked.

hongjoong rolled his eyes, “just a while, you know who i’m seeing and how far i’m going. i’ll be fine.”

his father narrowed his thick brows while hongjoong huffed and crossed his arms, fingers tapping on his trident impatiently. they engaged in a short staring contest – hongjoong’s stubbornness hardening his calm expression, and his father’s concern over his son’s safety creasing his forehead. finally, the king groaned, resting a big hand on hongjoong’s head.

“say hello to him for me,” he said. hongjoong gave a bashful smile and touched his father’s hand gently, before turning and swimming out into the open sea.

-

he’d been swimming for a while, taking a slightly longer route to see some friends along the way. first, he stopped along a familiar anemone cluster, carefully maintaining a distance and scanning for a familiar pink shell not too far from the swirling tendrils of the anemone. technically, he’d be fine for a while if they touched him, but only momentarily – he’d learnt that the first time he swam here in a panic, and almost passed out from the pain when he tried to hide among the dangerous anemone, from a ship‘s violent waves.

“yeosang!” he called out, “i brought some stuff for you!” 

he looked around the anemone before spotting a pink shell, no bigger than the length of his arm, rustling in its place. he grinned and swam over to it, pausing as the shell halted its movements, before giving two hard knocks just above the split in the clam. 

“hey,” a deep voice said from inside the shell.

“wake up, sleepyhead,” hongjoong teased, “i have gifts for you.”

the shell grumbled, before it slowly opened, its resident starting to peak his head out from the split. yeosang sulked, rubbing his eyes with his slimy hands before blinking dully at hongjoong, who continued to grin at him. yeosang was always like a pearl in the clam (well, he technically was the clam), all glowing and beautiful perfection, like he had been marbled by some higher being in its own divine image. his skin glistened with a layer of slime, yet his hair swayed gracefully with the ocean’s current. hongjoong wordlessly held out his gift - a brush he’d found on the ocean floor, covered in dirt and sand at first but thoroughly cleaned by hongjoong until its bristles were pristine.

yeosang’s gloomy face lit up at the brush. “aw, another one? i haven’t even worn in the last one you gave me.”

“well, now that you have two, san and wooyoung can both help you clean your shell, right?” hongjoong chuckled and yeosang’s groan of annoyance before asking, “speaking of those clowns, where are they?” 

“where do you think?” 

just then, a shrill sound rang loud from the anemone, before two darting figures came barreling towards hongjoong. he laughed and held his arms out to capture both in a hug, watching his younger friends giggle and smush their faces into his neck.

“joongie!” san exclaimed. his orange tail, evenly striped with black and white except for a streak of white on his tailfin, swished happily. hongjoong pet his head fondly as san continued, “did you come with presents for us?”

“yeosangie got his present already,” wooyoung pouted, swimming over to yeosang and squishing the mollusk’s cheeks. yeosang made a squawk of protest as wooyoung chuckled, stealing the brush out of his hands and landing a peck on the dark pink blotch beside yeosang’s left eye. hongjoong pretended he didn’t see how yeosang’s ears glowed the same pink of his shell.

“i got you two something too,” he said, pulling out two shiny reflective disks. san and wooyoung stared in awe, taking one each carefully. they turned the disks over, revealing some images and writing in the other side.

“i think these are called... CDs? they store information or something. the pictures are something like a summary of what’s in the CD,” hongjoong explained. 

the two clownfish stared at their gifts with wonder in their eyes. san’s had an image of a rock formation (“a mountain,” hongjoong supplied), that looked tall and mighty, green growing along grey jagged stones and topped with white (“that’s called snow.”). wooyoung’s had an almost neon glow, fluorescent pinks and blues spelling out a word he couldn’t really read. both of them turned the cds around in their hands, amazed and amused by their reflections on the undecorated sides. even yeosang was impressed by the images, smiling gently at his lovers with endearment in his eyes. the two chorused, “thank you, hongjoong!” 

hongjoong smiled at them widely, as his three friends bid him a safe journey, handing him some broken coral pieces and chunks of freshly-dead anemone to put into his bag. as he swam away, he chuckled at the distant sounds of wooyoung and san already making agreements to clean yeosang’s shell despite his indignation. hongjoong looked forward to seeing the clam with a much shinier shell, next time he visited.

-

“hongjoongie!!”

hongjoong looked up from the delicate sea cucumber he had stopped to admire to see a small shark barrelling towards him. he laughs and opens his eyes just wide enough for the oncoming body to crash into his chest. hongjoong envelops the small boy in a hug, as the boy smooshes his cheek against hongjoong.

“hi, jjongie,” he greeted, “aren’t you supposed to be with your class?”

jongho looked up, arms still tightly wound around hongjoong’s torso. he looked to the side while pursing his lips, his cheeks chubby with baby fat rounding until they looked like bubbles.

“saw you swimmin’ by,” jongho said softly, “didn’t wanna go home yet.”

hongjoong sighed, patting the young shark’s head. though only barely 5, jongho was already having expectations of carrying on his family’s legacy heaped onto him by his parents. school was basically the only place he could be himself, yet the other kids would stare at his beefy form and witness his intimidating strength and remind him of those expectations. hongjoong could relate, being the son of a king, ever since he spotted jongho lost and swimming aimlessly while trying not to cry. he’d helped the boy find his father and, since then, served as an older brother to the young shark.

“hongjoongie,” jongho gently called, grubby fingers on hongjoong’s wrist, “can we play?”

hongjoong gave a sad smile. “sorry jjongie, i’m visiting someone today, and i don’t want to be late. can we play another day?”

jongho pouted, his cheeks becoming round and squishy, making hongjoong coo and poke his face. jongho made a screech of indignation before they were both distracted by a voice calling out, “jongho! jongho!”.

“who’s that?” hongjoong asked.

“daehwi,” jongho mumbled. a small smile graced his face, “he said he’s my best friend.”

hongjoong grinned, glancing at the pretty sea cucumber he had been eyeing earlier, as well as the shells lining the sea floor it rested on. he remembered the idea of ‘friendship bracelets’, one such bracelet resting on the wrist jongho wasn’t grabbing.

“i’m sorry we can’t play today, but how about i show you something you and daehwi can make together?”

-

hongjoong giggled to himself as he stuffed a handful of broken seashells from daehwi and jongho into his bag (“i hope he likes them!” jongho had shouted with elation), swimming away slightly faster towards his destination. just as he saw the familiar dark rock formations, he heard a distinct sound from an especially tall rock... with two slithering figures retreating behind it.

hongjoong groaned and stopped, shaking his head as he said loudly, “alright, dumb and dumber, where are you?”

“...nowhere,” a deep, yet obviously audible voice replied.

“mingi!” someone else whisper-shouted.

“what! he asked a question!” 

they continued to bicker, unaware of hongjoong as he swam stealthily towards them before peering over the top of the rock. he grinned, uttering “boo!”, which was enough to get the red-striped eel flailing away from him.

“nice to see you too, hongjoong,” yunho said, looking at mingi with both fondness and disappointment.

mingi pouted, reminding hongjoong of jongho’s round cheeks. hongjoong squished mingi’s cheeks like he was jongho’s age, saying in a cutesy voice, “awh, cutie mingi wanted to surpwise me?” 

“hey! i could zap you at any time!” mingi protested, before reaching his ridiculously long arms out to squish hongjoong’s cheeks too. they wrassled around with each other until yunho cleared his throat.

“i can’t believe im third-wheeling my _best friend _and my _boyfriend _,” he sighed. hongjoong and mingi shared a quick glance before pouncing on him, each pinching one of yunho’s mochi cheeks.____

____the three laughed a little more, hongjoong starting to feel little excess electricity from the two tingling his skin. yunho smiled warmly at him as he said, “are you visiting him?”_ _ _ _

____“yup, do you have anything you wanna pass to him?”_ _ _ _

____“nah,” mingi replied, “we can always ask ourselves. we live right beside him, after all.”_ _ _ _

____hongjoong shrugged, waving goodbye at his two eel friends. their striped tailes subtly interconnected as they gracefully swam away, the red and blue being the only thing distinguising them until they went totally out of sight. hongjoong scanned the area for a familiar pitch black cave, peering for any sign if extra darkness spilling out of it, until his eyes landed on it._ _ _ _

____finally, hongjoong swam towards the pitch blackness, an enchanted grin on his face._ _ _ _

____-_ _ _ _

____“seonghwa!”_ _ _ _

____seonghwa turned away from his cauldron, putting away the ingredients in his hand as he heard a familiar voice chime his name. he smiled softly to himself, moving towards the mouth of his little abode and allowing his tentacles to cascade freely down and around the cave’s walls. his thick lower appendages spilled over the mouth of the cave like shadows. he looked up, arms folded expectantly as he always did when hongjoong came._ _ _ _

____his white-tailed lover came swimming towards him, light that filtered from the surface making hongjoong glow like an angel. his white hair floated gently around his small and delicate face, the translucent parts of his tail capturing light in an ethereal way. the white scales of his tail glimmered in the light, and contrasted against the utter blackness of seonghwa’s myriad of tentacles now surrounding hongjoong. hongjoong grinned widely and looped his arms around seonghwa’s neck, the octopus smirking but not moving his hands from where they were folded across his chest. he admired hongjoong’s face in its proximity, the contrast of his lover’s pure white fins to his own ominous black tentacles._ _ _ _

____“did you miss me~?” hongjoong sing-songed. seonghwa shrugged and hongjoong pouted like a petulant child. “can i get a kiss?”_ _ _ _

____seonghwa pretended to ponder for a moment before smiling and landing a peck on hongjoong’s nose. hongjoong made a shocked face, “be more specific next time, love.”_ _ _ _

____hongjoong frowned and seonghwa laughed, complacently kissing hongjoong’s lips to appease him. hongjoong sighed as they parted, keeping his arms looped around seonghwa’s neck as the octopus turned, effectively making seonghwa piggy-back him into the cave (ignoring that, with the cave’s dimensions, hongjoong could easily swim alongside seonghwa). some tentacles loosely wrapped around hongjoong’s biceps and midsection where his skin met his tail, to ensure he didn’t slip off seonghwa’s shoulders._ _ _ _

____“i was collecting some materials the other day and found something for you,” seonghwa said. hongjoong always admired how concise seonghwa was when he spoke._ _ _ _

____“i have presents for you as well, from our friends and from me,” hongjoong replied. “i think you’ll like jongho’s gift especially.”_ _ _ _

____seonghwa hummed, “that baby grows so fast. how long until your father sends a search party for you, by the way?”_ _ _ _

____hongjoong laughed, the light and airy sound practically illuminating seonghwa’s home. seonghwa’s heart sped up, the same way it did all those years when he first met hongjoong. as hongjoong replied, seonghwa found himself only half-listening, too pre-occupied with the way hongjoong’s lips moved when he spoke. he only caught the most important parts (“my father knows i’m here” and “until the sun sets”) before instinctively pressing a kiss to hongjoong’s forehead as he set him down on a comfortable seat beside his workspace._ _ _ _

____hongjoong, angelically gazing up at seonghwa with wide, loving eyes, could only smile dopily at his lover, while seonghwa mirrored him with a similar expression. seonghwa held their hands together before leaning down to kiss hongjoong again; his tentacles climbed the walls of the cave, framing the two in their underwater heaven together._ _ _ _


End file.
